Ikariam from A to Z: A guide for all levels
This guide provides 26 tips, a collection that will help you to progress rapidly in the game. It takes into account all attack and defense mechanisms and the new features of Patch 0.3.2. Choose the right server When you create an account, select the right server. If you choose a very old server, you may be an easy target for many players and/or you won't find available islands to build your towns as most of the good islands will be full. If you choose a very new server, it will take months to build your towns because the islands' levels of production will be very low. Also, if your language group has one, you may be interested in a Speed Server! It requires fast actions and spending lots of time per day to keep alive! Choose a server that is neither the '''oldest', nor the newest. Choose the server that has the most persons you know on Ikariam.'' Choose the right starting island If you start on: * an island without * an island with low resource levels (Saw mill, etc.) * an island far from your friends'/planned alliance islands, then the first step is to prepare to move away. Build an Academy and upgrade it to Level 4 (requiring no ), then build Warehouses and research Expansion (Seafaring). Once you have researched Expansion and have bought 3''' Cargo Ships, build a Palace. After the Palace is complete, create a colony where you want, build a Governor's Residence there, then nominate that town as your Capital and abandon your 1st town. You will lose some time in the process, but you will be near your friends and you will be able to help them or they will be able to help you easily. ''Aim to start on a island with no less than a '''Level 16 Saw mill and Level 16 Quarry.'' Keep your army and goods on one island only Some people like collecting goods in all their towns and they create armies in each town to protect them. No wonder they stay at 100k points or less after 1 year in the game. If you have 6''' towns and each town has 300 army units to protect itself, you will soon be out of . It is better to collect 1,000 army units in one town and store almost all your goods there. Just transfer the goods from all your towns to a central one once per day (preferably '''at night so you don't waste your Cargo Ships). As your whole army is present in one town, few enemies will want to attack you there, especially if they can't spy on the the city because it's protected by a high level Hideout. As for the other towns, don't panic if somebody attacks them. Just leave a ship so one has to blockade your port to attack, and then leave it. Who cares if an attacker takes ? Simply transfer goods each night to your main town and that limits your risk. Don't hire expensive armies to work where you don't need them. Plan to create as many colonies as possible The theory is simple. To feed a bigger army, you need more gold. To collect more gold, you need more citizens. Imagine having 6 cities with a level 25 town hall, and imagine having 8 cities with a level 25 town hall. Instead of building bigger armies, try to get to 9 towns, for which 1 Carpenter (Level 32) and 2 warehouses (Level 22) are needed. You'll be glad if you ever get yourself troubled in a war. For this to succeed, you must have time available, and particularly: * Very high (>18) island resources * A strong alliance. If you belong in a small alliance, perhaps it is time to move on. * Availability of items. You need lots of goods to build the Palace / Governor's Residences. Final advice: When you're collecting items to upgrade a palace, keep your entire army there. If you can, build a new town. Sticking to 5 or 6 cities just because you think it's enough is not good. Aim to create the 8th, 9th, or even 10th town. Choose your islands based on availability Generally, marble is the best bet because everybody needs it, and at the map overview you clearly see that almost all marble islands are full (16/16) and the islands close to them (wine, sulfur and crystal) are not. You usually need many marble islands. However, whether or not you colonise sulfur or crystal islands depends on the availability in the area. For example, if sulfur is sold at 3 or 4 gold pieces/piece in your area, then why build a sulfur island? By contrast, if you're in a war or in an area where sulfur is expensive, a sulfur island is surely valuable and it's worth colonising a sulfur island. Also, think of the distance between your islands. If too large a distance you will waste time transferring goods (and you will be in real misery when you want to transfer 300k goods for a new palace). If your islands are too close your trading posts will overlap, and your contact with your friends/alliance will be limited. Choose the best islands to colonise. If the island you want is unavailable (e.g. it's full), wait a few days. Don't choose an inferior island to create a colony faster. '' First upgrade your Governor's Residences, then start a new colony Otherwise, you'll have corruption and corruption is so bad (even at low levels) that it will render your cities useless, mostly because satisfaction decreases and you'll need more wine, while producing fewer goods. Following tip D is all right, but don't overdo it. ''First upgrade all your existing cities, then start a new colony. Otherwise you will get yourself in trouble. Upgrade your Hideouts to Level 20 or higher If your hideouts are too low, anyone looking around for targets may find out: * where your goods are, * where your army is. In other words, you will be an easy target for anyone. By contrast, a hideout on level 20 ensures that no one will be able to spy on your cities - so if someone wants to attack you, they will so so without information and believe me, most won't risk losing a battle for the chance of collecting just 75 goods in a blind attack. The same applies for each new colony you build. First upgrade the Hideout to a high level so no one can spy on the new colony, then start sending goods for the Governor's Residence. Upgrade your Hideouts at no risk as soon as possible, especially when preparing for a new colony. Upgrade your Trading ports to Level 15 or more You may think "oh it's all right, I will just wait for a few minutes more, so what?". Well not when you are attacked. If you know that you will lose the battle, you don't want the enemy to get much from you. Having your ports on a high level allows you to transfer your goods rapidly, which is especially useful when you are attacked, or when you transport a large number of items for e.g. palace construction. How many goods one can pillage from your city does not depend on your port level, so levelling the port up does not mean that an enemy can pillage more goods from your city. Speed is one of the features that makes an Ikariam player powerful. Upgrade your Barracks and Shipyards to Level 15 or higher Just because if you don't create lot of units does not mean that your Barracks level should be low. When you are attacked and your units are destroyed, you want to be able to recover as soon as possible. Create a Barracks building in all your towns if possible, and upgrade it to Level 15 or higher. In an emergency, you will then be able to rapidly create units. The same applies for he Shipyard. Remember: Speed is one of the features that makes an Ikariam player powerful! Build as many Forester's House and Alchemist's Towers / Glassblowers / Stonemasons / Winegrowers as possible These buildings will increase your production. Up to level 10 their cost is not much to build and they will raise your production by 20%. Do not keep a town without them. Make good use of your resources. Build as many Carpenters and Wine Presses as possible A Level 32 Carpenter saves you both wood and also limits the need for Warehouse expansions. For example, building a Level 8 Palace needs almost (after you have researched Spirit Level) and 3 * Level 25 Warehouses. However, with the Carpenter, you only need 2 * Level 24 Warehouses. So instead of building a 3rd warehouse, build a Carpenter that not only saves the for the Palace, but for every future building. A Wine Press is very useful to save your , especially when your Town hall is at Level 20+. And build a Level 32 Carpenter in each town as soon as you reach 5 towns. Try to save your and , as they are the most needed resources in the game. Wood is needed for almost everything, and Wine keeps your citizens happy in the Tavern Initially, do not waste space to build Architect's Offices, Opticians or Firework Test Areas These buildings take space, require goods to build and time, and most importantly they won't save you much at the first steps of the game. For Crystal Glass and Sulphur, it is easier to get them, as they're easily traded. You will need to build large warehouses to hold the goods. For marble you may someday need an Architect's Office, but that will happen after you're created 8 or 9 towns. Some buildings will not save you much at the startings of the game The Workshop is not needed after you've completed all upgrades All Unit and Ship upgrades can be made with a Level 24 Workshop, so there is no reason to upgrade it past that level. Also, after you have completed all upgrades, the Workshop is useless. Save space for more crucial buildings; if needed, rebuild it elsewhere. On the other hand, keep in mind that in later versions, new units or ships may be introduced, and there is a great chance you will want to upgrade them, too. In general, don't keep buildings you don't need. The mandatory and optional buildings in a town Besides the Town hall which is automatically built, and the Trading port / Shipyard / Town wall which are built in special places, each town must have: * Palace / Governor's Residence * Tavern * Museum * Hideout * Carpenter * One of Alchemist's Tower / Glassblower / Stonemason / Winegrower * One or more Warehouses Failure to have the above buildings in each of your city will render the city vulnerable to any sort of bad thing in Ikariam (corruption, attack, low production, low satisfaction etc). The following buildings are not required in all of your cities, but most of them should have them. You have to put as many as possible of these in your empire: * Academy * Barracks * Forester's House Also, you should build: * Wine Presses to towns not producing * Opticians to towns where you conduct Experiments * Firework Test Areas to towns where you produce units and ships Building at least one Trading post is also essential. If you are in need for gold or goods, then a Trading port can save you a lot of time from waiting to get them. Finally, you only need one of these: * Workshop * Embassy If you still have free space after building all of these buildings on your towns, then consider building Architect's Offices. Moreover, if you are unable to achieve a great marble production, then building Architect's Offices is mandatory, especially to towns not producing . Make good use of the limited available space. Keep an eye on your gold production Creating too many army units may exhaust your gold. Make sure your net gold income is positive, preferably over 5k gold/hour. When attacked, if your army is destroyed and you're out of gold, the best strategy is to stop producing goods and to wait until you have collected some cash. Meanwhile you won't fear more attacks because you'll have no goods, and gold can't be pillaged. Eventually your attackers will abandon you and then you will have time and gold to buy wood/sulfur and to build the units you need. Rich players are more powerful than poor players. Your gold will be of great value when you reach 130 Cargo Ships Do not use Helping Hands unless in desperation Adding extra people to the Saw mill or other luxury item mine, is the same like buying that item for . Therefore, you should not use that feature unless you are 100 items short of required for a building and you want to get them rapidly. Make good use of your gold and your Trading post. Look around your area for inactive players. They provide goods at no cost Once a player becomes inactive, it is almost a certainty that they won't be joining the game again. Watch around for players and attach them as soon as they become inactive (because at that point it is likely that they will have the greatest number of goods to pillage). Make sure you get the most you can before others. Attack quickly and preferably not at high-load server times. Do not plan your strategy to attack for resources Suppose you spy on an enemy and you find out they have a lot of goods to be pillaged. Is it safe and cheap to pillage them? Can you instead trade the goods? Can you ask a higher player for a donation? Do you really want to attack? Remember: * Attacking costs twice the upkeep. * Attacking requires lots of time, particularly if the target has a big Town wall. * You may lose some or all your units in the battle, meaning that if you lose the battle, all of your remaining units will be scattered for 4 hours! * You may pillage less than you thought, or even nothing, because the enemy may remove the goods, or get pillaged by someone else that gets there first, or use the goods for building, or donate them to the Saw mill and Miracle, or exchange them with the aid of the Premium Trader! * You'll create a new enemy who will surely remember you later on. Yes, I DO remember all those that attacked me, and now I have 10 towns they feel really sorry! * You may make yourself an enemy of the target's alliance members too. * You need ships to collect the [goods. No matter how brilliant the battle is or how much army is destroyed, if you have 160 Cargo Ships you can only collect 80k in goods at most. Is it worth it? Take into account all possibilities. Think before attacking. Don't assume that you'll win a battle just because your enemy has fewer Military points than you Remember that in Patch 0.3.2 the strategy plays a role, and not the mass hit. So if you attack with 5k points and the defender has 4k points, never just assume that you will win. Remember that the defense is also enhanced by the town wall and the strategy in Patch 0.3.2 is quite different. Remember: Think before attacking! Do not participate in a battle just to lose your army If you are attacked by a relatively large army and you have few units to defend with, then you are likely to lose the battle. Instead of waiting for the inevitable loss of your army, move them immediately into a city on the same island. The movement begins immediately, no ships are reserved and you have kept your army for further assistance. If you lose the battle, your army dissappears for 4 hours! Can you tolerate that? Keep your army, when possible. First attack with units that will destroy the enemy Town wall Carefully planned attacks against a good player must involve an attack to destroy their Town wall. You need to attack some rounds with units like Mortars, Catapults or Rams, which can create gaps in the Town wall. After a few attack rounds you can send your higher units to defeat the enemy's weakened units. While you're trying to break the Town wall, have in mind that the enemy might take advantage of the extra time to ask for assistance. Follow the one-to-one principle. If you don't, you can expect to be a big target for the entire enemy alliance There is a common rule in all Ikariam servers that if you are attacking a lone player, then you won't be in much trouble. However, if you are planning a massive attack against a player, bear in mind that this is usually a declaration of war. Do not fight against alliances that have many members nearby; you'll be helpless if all of them attack you. If you are attacked by many players without reason, the best shot is to try to solve the issue by contacting the diplomats. Do not try to attack, for you will be usually helpless against 3 or more attackers. And remember, if you are attacked massively by big players, there is always the forum to complain. When you are about to declare war, make sure there's a reason. Don't place your alliance's stability in jeopardy just because you want to take revenge. Instead, build more towns than your enemy and prepare your army to defeat him alone. Plan your revenge with great patience If you are attacked by a bigger player and your army is destroyed and your goods are pillaged, the first thing to do is to stay calm. If the attacking player has more cities than you, then he will eventually overpower you. Don't take desperate measures to save yourself, instead: * Do not create any army until you are ready to fight. Otherwise your enemy will constantly win because they will be creating units faster than you. * Consume the goods you produce almost immediately to build town halls, tavern and barracks. This will increase your gold income and your ability to create units. * Do not be afraid of repeating attacks. Since there will be nothing to destroy or take, eventually they will get bored. * When you are ready, build the units you want from all your towns. Patience pays off. Do not expose your military plans to your alliance A common "feature" of some big players is to spy on an entire alliance, by creating a new account then joining that alliance. Such spies are of course illegal, but they are very difficult to detect. If you expose your plans to your alliance, chances are that your plan is also exposed to the enemy alliance. If you are the leader of an alliance, make it so new members can't see the online status of the members. This prevents a spy to see whether a user is online or not. Also, do not accept players with less than 30.000 points in the alliance - usually the spies are accounts with just enough points/resources to build an embassy. Do not talk much! Take advantage of Occupation When planning an attack to a player which is not near your islands, it is better to occupy a weak near city at the same island and attack from there. This will save you the time you would need to block the enemy port. If you attempt to block the enemy port, you will need more time plus the enemy will be aware of your attack. By attacking instead a weak city at the same island (which is not probable to have a great deal of ships to defend), the enemy will only be aware of your presence just minutes before your army gets at them. Remember, this feature is also available to your enemies. Beware of low-score players in your island, as they can be fake duplicates for an enemy to attack you, bypassing your ships. Don't stick strictly to all the above tips Remember, these tips are what this page authors' personal style is. Yours will be different. Have a good idea on what is stated here, but do not stick to them that much! Category:Guides